Friday, October 30, 2009

"Mooooooo!" Says the Vampire Cow.

I've been dying to make sugar skulls for a couple of years now, but how to substitute that tricky meringue powder? I was all set to try this year using Angel Food's vegan meringue cookie mix, when my friend Katie came to my rescue. She's had luck subbing Ener-G Foods Egg Replacer, and told me to give it a go. So I popped on over to this awesome Day of the Dead shop on Alberta and invested in a mold and just now, I have seven pink sugar skulls drying on my ironing board.They're all firm and stuff! I was able to pick them up! No crumbling!To those that have asked for a tutorial, the instructions that come with the mold are extremely detailed. Simply sub the egg replacer 1:1 for the powdered meringue. Tomorrow I'll try subbing it in the royal icing I use for decorating them, so expect a report back on how that works, too.* The instructions recommend not dying the sugar for first timers, but I disagree. Since I went ahead and added some rose colored Wilton paste to my water, I felt it made it easier for me to make sure the water was evenly mixed with the sugar. Personally, I won't mind a different colored seam connecting the front with the back of the skull, but if this bothers you, you can leave the step out.

*ETA: I used the powdered egg replacer in the royal icing recipe as well, and it was perfect. I doubt it would be tasty to eat, but it dried on rock hard, which is what's wanted here. For small color batches, I used 1 cup vegan powdered sugar, 2 heaped tablespoons powdered egg replacer, and 1/6 cup water (half of 1/3 cup) mixed with Wilton color paste. If your mixture is runny, add more powdered sugar until you get something pretty thick and sticky.

Happy Halloween!

xokittee

P.S. gwgjoan is getting a Primal Strip. I have one left, so leave me a comment if you want it!

I've been meaning to try this for ages, but I'm glad you beat me to the punch- Your sugar skulls are awesome! And the best part is, they last forever (practically) so you can use them for years to come (unless you break them up and use them in tea, not that I would ever do that...)

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